Do you like to travel? Do you enjoy taking photos? Do you like to share your adventures? Have you thought of starting a travel blog?
There are many advantages to starting a travel blog. A blog can act like your own digital scrapbook or journal by recording your travel adventures in details. Your photos and words will let your family and friends share in your experiences no matter where you are in the world, and it will let them have fun with you. It might even serve as a catalyst for you to travel on assignment for publications and brands.
Not sure how to start a blog, though? Let us help you with this easy five-step process.
- Identify your blog’s focus.
- Choose a name and secure a domain.
- Choose a web host.
- Install WordPress and customize your blog’s theme.
- Start writing!
Identify Your Blog’s Focus.
View of Valle Margherita from Pettorano sul Gizio, Italy
One of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is that they try to cover too much ground in their blog. Do you want to discuss your adventures? Culture? Outdoors? History? Do you want to appeal to families? Seniors? Millennials? Will you focus on luxury travel? Budget? How will you set yourself apart?
Choose a Name and Secure a Domain.
Once you have a good plan for your blog’s niche, choose a domain name that reflects it. You want something that not only attracts readers but also informs them as to your blog’s focus. “MY BLOG” isn’t going to cut it, so try to come up with something that reflects you and your blog. If you are going to concentrate on hiking trails around the world, for example, you might consider “Happy Trails to You,”“Off the Beaten Path,” or “Take a Hike.”
You will, of course, have to check if your domain name is available. You can do so by typing your preferred domain name on Siteground. If the name is taken, Siteground will tell you and give you some options. Note in the example below, I put in “offthebeatenpath.com” and found that it is already registered. I tried “imoffthebeatentrack.com” and found that by adding “I’m,” the domain was available.
Choose a web host and hosting plan
Choosing a web host might be confusing, but you want to choose one that is reliable and that has good customer service. Siteground is not only one of the fastest web hosts but also one of the most reliable with a 99.90% uptime. (In other words, it doesn’t crash.) In addition, Siteground offers free domain registration and free SSL certificate (which makes your blog trustworthy). If that’s not enough to convince you, WordPress recommends Siteground as a host.
Siteground has always relied on a highly innovative approach in web hosting services. In addition to developing their infrastructure and the entire software stack entirely internally, they are constantly one of the first providers to implement innovations such as the latest PHP versions. Currently, they are one of the first to allow the activation of WebP and Brotli (available in any plan with SiteTools). Moreover, the company is one of the leading providers of hosting and software services in the world. With more than 2,000,000 domains and five data centers on four continents, they provide 24/7 expert WordPress support.
Also, SiteGround is currently offering it’s web hosting for as much as 70% off on its various plans. So you can get in right now with your wine blog at a tremendous deal.
To get started on Siteground, click here. Usually, beginners use the StartUp plan for 1 website since it offers free SSL certificate to secure the website (a must nowadays!). It also offers free email accounts which make things professional; has free CDN included to boost th performance; includes automatic 1 click WordPress installation and automated update. In addition, the caching is included; servers are Google Cloud; and you will also receive 24/7 expert WordPress support.
It’s not hard. Choose the plan you want and follow the directions. Before you know it, you’ll be ready to install WordPress.
Install WordPress and Customize Your Blog’s Theme.
After activation, you will receive an email from Siteground. All you have to do is follow the easy and simple directions to install WordPress with Siteground’s in-house built WordPress Starter plugin There is a video that walks you through a curated number of themes and plugins to choose from and launch your website within minutes. Siteground hand-picked the best plugins for the most common website needs based on our knowledge and experience ( e.g. WPForms, Yoast SEO, WP Google Maps, Jetpack and more), and they have partnered with great theme providers to include premium themes at no cost to their customers.
While WordPress comes with a default theme, Siteground’s premium themes might help you personalize your blog more to your style. To do so, click on “Appearances” in the WordPress dashboard, you can peruse the free themes. Click “Preview” to get an idea of how the pages of your blog will look with the different themes. Choose one that you like, install it, and activate it. Once it is up and running, you can customize the colors, layout, fonts, and more. You are now ready to move on!
(NOTE! Something new bloggers might not realize is that Siteground has special features that they developed especially for WordPress— the SuperCacher plugin and the SG Optimizer plugin which help optimize your site without your having to deal with code. In addition, consider that Siteground offers:
- Dynamic caching on all plans to speed up between 50% and 500% website loading. This is one of the most powerful speed technologies that they have ever created for their clients
- New MySQL setup for faster query processing
- Brotli compression is enabled on all plans
- The Ultrafast PHP is now available on GrowBig plans and higher. It has significant impact on the TTFB and speeds up sites with up to 30%)
Start writing!
Congratulations! The only thing left for you to do now is start publishing. Make sure to create “About” and “Contact” pages in addition to your main blog page. Your readers will want to know more about you, and many may want to contact you.
Start writing your posts, and try to add at least one per week. By posting regularly, you keep your readers engaged, interested, and wanting more.
Finally, don’t forget to share your posts on social media to build your audience.
